Was at the Village today and noticed that they are gutting out the former Klondike Jakes space. Correct me if I’m wrong but wasn’t there a pool hall or something like that slated to go in there?

Plaza Reit website shows it leased as a dermatologist clinic.

In others news, it looks like the old Stockwoods on Freshwater Road has (finally) been purchased. No idea what the plan for the site is.

That old building is ancient and so run down. Probably rat infested now. Probably better off being torn down and start anew.

Thanks for the update.

My thoughts as well but it would appear so far that the new owners have been doing work on the building. No idea what the end-goal is.

Rumours floating around again about Giant Tiger coming to town. This time in the former Walmart location on Topsail Road (which would be an excellent location in my opinion). Anyone hear of anything to back up the rumours? I couldn’t find anything from Giant Tiger itself or from Crombie REIT which owns that property.

Hakim Optical is reopening their Village Mall location on Sept 20.

Apologies up front. This story has nothing to do with St. John’s but is interesting nonetheless.

The Hudson Bay Company in Burlington Ontario is surprisingly opening a pop-up “Zellers” Store within its Hudson Bay Store. They still own the rights to the Zellers name after selling most of its Zellers physical store leases to Target several years ago. Well that didn’t go well for Target and now they are all gone too. I wonder if The owners are testing the retail market for a possible Zellers return to Canada in stand-alone physical store format? HBC is currently struggling to survive these days to stay relevant and profitable. Could the return of the discount Zellers chain be its saviour. This is intriguing.

Here is the link the the Retail-Insider article....
https://retail-insider.com/retail-in...cation-photos/

Pipers Mount Pearl
 

Heard on the radio that Piper's newest store was opening in Mount Pearl today.

Dr. Coffey is moving there in the new year from Lawton's building on Topsail Rd. The city approved a bar/pool hall application last year for the Village, but I guess that's still in the works. Village parking lot is a great place to get your car doors dinged, the spaces seem a bit smaller than most other lots. And final Village note, apparently Sportchek is staying. All three in St. John's will remain open.

I heard the same thing! Apparently there’s work being done on the old walmart building now. Anyone know anything?

I'm not allowed to say anything yet, but I've heard from a very reliable source that the old Walmart is being prepped to open a new store. Not allowed to say the name of the store, but it's rumored to open in late spring-early summer

Unfortunately it’s still just hearsay and rumours then. I’ll only take any news seriously if it comes from either Crombie REIT which currently owns the property or proposal news that gets posted in the city council’s building plans agenda regarding that location.

last time we drove by it was still filled with Walmart shelves and self checkouts

Looks like Chapters/Indigo may have a replacement for many of its abandoned Starbucks Coffee shops that came about as a result of Covid. Good Earth Coffeehouse are planning to expand and take over a bunch of the former Starbucks locations across the country. Time will tell if they plan on coming to St. John’s at our local Chapters Bookstore. Here is link to story...
https://retail-insider.com/retail-in...ns-interviews/

GoodLife
 

Goodbye Fitness is more like it. The Village Mall Goodlife will now close June 30 at 5:00 pm. It will reopen as a Fit 4 Less. The memo says there is no specific time frame for the opening, although staff are saying November at the earliest is what they've been hearing from grapevine. If you remember, 2 years ago, the Avalon Mall GoodLife closed....to be reopened and rebranded as a Fit 4 Less as well, but never has. The Blackmarsh Road Dominion GoodLife for women has also permanently closed.